The NISE Network is a national community of researchers and informal science educators dedicated to fostering public awareness, engagement, and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. Nisenet.org is an online digital library of public nano educational products and tools designed for educators and scientists.

Attendance at the Network-Wide Meeting was by invitation-only due to space and budgetary limitations.
We are sorry we are unable to invite all NISE Network partners to attend the meeting; we are making digital versions of many slides and handouts available following the event.

Join this conversation for an introduction to NISE Net’s new Museum and Community Partnerships project, which will support efforts by Network partners to develop or improve existing partnerships with local community-based organizations. Through these partnerships, museums will be able to extend their reach to underserved audiences and help community organizations provide high-quality STEM learning experiences to their audiences.

Even as our ten years of funding from the National Science Foundation comes to an end, the NISE Net's capacity to reach the public is at its peak! The numbers in our year-10 annual report show a total of 598 organizations that regularly participate in NISE Net activities, of which 352 are museums or other kinds of informal science education groups, 203 are groups from universities, and 43 are a variety of other kinds of organizations.

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The NISE Network Report to Partners provides an overview of the major activities of the Network and highlights our collective accomplishments related to building collaborations, engaging the public, and increasing the capacity of the field. It also looks ahead to sustaining the Network beyond 2015.

Oleophobic Surfaces - Anti-Graffiti Demo is a hands on cart demonstration for spontaneous, 3-10 minute interactions with visitors. The visitors will explore several surfaces that display oleophobic properties due to material science research at the nano scale.
Coatings can preserve, protect, lubricate, grip, and a myriad of other behaviors. For example, walls can be coated with material that when dry, will prevent the adhesion of paint or ink. In this demonstration, we're examining coatings that are oleophobic, "oil hating," and prevent low surface tension liquids from adhering to it.

This hands-on activity will guide you in making a synthetic gecko tape with micron sized hairs that mimics that behavior of the gecko foot. The process is called "nanomolding." Also described is an easy setup using Legos for testing how much weight the gecko tape can hold. Significant amount of research is ongoing in the field of synthetic Gecko tape due to its wide variety of applications. This program gives a glimpse of one of the methods used by researchers for making a synthetic gecko tape and its properties.

This guide provides an overview of the Nano exhibition created by the NISE Network. The April 2015 document describes the exhibition and summarizes the unique dissemination model of distributing 93 copies of this small footprint mini-exhibition to locations throughout the United States. The guide content focuses on STEM learning and engagement, best practices in exhibition design, and impacts on museum audiences.

How can we mass-produce sophisticated products from materials too small to see? "From Lab to Fab" follows the story of two nanotech entrepreneurs navigating the rocky road from discovery to commercialization, with products ranging from tiny implantable body sensors to bullet-proof vests and aircraft flooring.

In this activity, students learn about structural color while exploring interference paints. Students compare interference acrylic paints to normal acrylic paints. Students also observe how the color of the paint changes when it’s applied to different paper, or viewed from a different angle.